557. William of Jumièges (vii. 1) distinctly makes the building of these castles one of the main signs and causes of the general disorder of the country. “Sub ejus ineunte ætate, Normannorum plurimi aberrantes ab ejus fidelitate, plura per loca aggeres erexerunt, et tutissimas sibi munitiones construxerunt. Quarum dum auderent fisi munimine, protinùs inter eos diversi motus exoriuntur, seditiones concitantur, ac sæva patriæ incendia ubique perpetrantur,” &c. So William of Malmesbury (iii. 230); “Mox quisque sua munire oppida, turres agere, frumenta comportare, caussas aucupari quibus quamprimùm à puero dissidia meditarentur.” The “agger” is the “mote” or mound on which the Norman castles were so often built. The word came almost to be used for the castle itself. In the Roman de Rou, 8847, a knight is described as standing at his gate “Entre li mostier è sa mote,” that is, between the church and his own castle. According to Mr. Clark, the “agger” or “mote” was commonly an earlier earthwork made use of by the builders of the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Old London, p. 16). Yet the rebellious nobles are here clearly described as throwing up “aggeres” for the express purpose of building their castles, and we can hardly believe that the “tutissimæ munitiones” were of wood.
559. Chron. Wig. 1066. “And Oda biscop and Wyllelm eorl belifen her æfter, and worhton castelas wide geond þas þeode, and earm folc swencte, and á syððan hit yflade swiðe.” Chron. Petrib. 1087. “Castelas he lét wyrcean, and earme men swiðe swencean.” The famous description of the castle-building in the year 1137 is familiar to readers even of the commonest English histories.
563. Roman de Rou, 8131;
564. The “Turoldus” of William of Jumièges (vii. 2), and the “Turchetillus” of Orderic (656 C), certainly seem to be the same person.
566. Will. Gem. viii. 37. “Gislebertus fuerat filius Godefridi Comitis Aucensis, naturalis videlicet filii primi Richardi Ducis Normannorum.” See vol. i. p. 279.
567. See vol. i. p. 198. Gilbert is called “Comes Ocensis” by William of Jumièges (vii. 2), and the same writer (iv. 18) also says, “Licet Comes Gislebertus filius Godefridi Comitis ipsum comitatum parumper tenuerit, antequam occideretur.” But see Stapleton, i. lvi.
568. Will. Gem. vii. 33. “Alanum patrem meum apud Winmusterium in Normanniâ veneno peremisti.” But the Breton Chronicle in Morice (Memoires pour servir de Preuves à l’histoire de Bretagne) says only, “1039. Obiit Alanus Dux Britanniæ filius Gauffredi. 3 Kal. Oct.” Cf. Roman de Rou, 8139;
See Prevost’s note, i. 403.
569. Roman de Rou, 8136.
570. Orderic (567 A) says distinctly, “Alannum Comitem Britonum suique Ducis tutorem Normanni veneno perimere.”
571. Will. Gem. vii. 2. Will. Malms. iii. 230. “Interfecto Gisleberto a Radulpho patruele suo, ubique cædes, ubique ignes versabantur.”
572. This seems the meaning of the context of the passage from William of Jumièges quoted just above.
573. Ord. Vit. 686 D.
574. Will. Gem. vii. 2.
575. Ib. “In Normanniâ summoperè inserviebant diris facinoribus.”
576. Ib. viii. 37.
577. Ib. viii. 35.
578. Ib. vii. 16. See above, p. 185. William gives the daughters of Roger and Mabel a good character. Of the sons he says, “Illi ferales et cupidi, et inopum rabidi oppressores exstiterunt. Quam callidi, vel militares, seu perfidi fuerint, aut quantùm super vicinos paresque suos excreverint, iterumque sub eis pro facinoribus suis decederint, non est nostrum in hoc loco enarrare.”
579. Ib. “Præfata mulier erat corpore parva, multùmque loquax, ad malum satis prompta, et sagax atque faceta, nimiùmque crudelis et audax,” Above, vii. 10, she is “Mabilia, crudelissimæ sobolis mater.” So Ord. Vit. 470 A; “Præfata Mabilia multùm erat potens et sæcularis, callida et loquax, nimiumque crudelis.”
580. Ord. Vit. 667 B. “Rogerius Merciorum Comes.”
581. Will. Gem. vii. 2. See Palgrave, iii. 198. Stapleton, i. cxxvi.
582. Will. Gem. ib. “Deinde [after the death of Gilbert] Turoldus teneri Ducis pædagogus perimitur à perfidis patriæ desertoribus.”
583. This is the way in which I read the story in William of Jumièges (vii. 2), compared with that put into Duke William’s own mouth by Orderic (656 C). Sir Francis Palgrave seems to make Thorold and Osbern be murdered at once (199). But William of Jumièges seems to make these murders two distinct events. After the passage just quoted he goes on, “Osbernus quoque ... quâdam nocte, dum in cubiculo Ducis cum ipso in Valle Rodoili securus soporatur, repente in stratu suo à Willelmo Rogerii de Monte-gumeri filio jugulatus.” Orderic puts the murders of Gilbert, Thorold (or Thurcytel), and Osbern together in general terms; “Turchetillum nutricium meum et Osbernum Herfasti filium, Normanniæ dapiferum, Comitemque Gislebertum patrem patriæ, cum multis aliis reipublicæ necessariis fraudulenter interfecerunt.” The murder of Osbern can hardly fail to have been one of the occasions so pathetically referred to in Orderic; “Noctibus multotiens cognatorum timore meorum à Gualterio avunculo meo de camerâ principali furtim exportatus sum, ac ad domicilia latebrasque pauperum, ne à perfidis, qui ad mortem me quærebant, invenirer, translatus sum.”
584. Will. Gem. vii. 2. “Barno quippe de Glotis, præpositus Osberni, injustam necem domini sui cupiens ulcisci, nocte quadam expeditos pugiles congregavit, et domum, ubi Willelmus et complices sui dormiebant, adiit, ac omnes simul, sicut meruerant, statim trucidavit.”
586. Will. Gem. vii. 3. “Comperiens autem quod Willelmus puer in Ducatu patri successerit, vehementer indignatus est, et tumidè despexit illi servire, dicens quod nothus non deberet sibi aliisque Normannis imperare.”
587. See Will. Gem. vii. 3; viii. 37. Ord. Vit. 460 C.
588. Garnier, Vie de S. Thomas, 1830 (p. 66 ed. Hippeau); “E cil [quens] de Leicestre, ke mut par est senez.” So William Fitz-Stephen (i. 235 Giles); “Comes Legecestriæ Robertus, qui maturitate ætatis et morum aliis prominebat;” and Herbert of Bosham (i. 147 Giles); “Nobilis vir Robertus, tunc Leicestræ Comes, inter honoratos honoratior.”
589. Amicia, daughter of Robert, third Earl of Leicester, married Simon the Third, Lord of Montfort. She was the mother of Simon the leader of the Crusade against the Albigenses, and the grandmother of our own Simon the Righteous. See Pauli, Simon von Montfort, 19, 20.
590. Will. Gem. vii. 4. “Rodulphum de Wacceio ex consultu majorum sibi tutorem eligit, et principem militiæ Normannorum constituit.”
592. The expressions of William of Jumièges (vii. 4) are remarkable; “Henricum igitur Regem Francorum adeunt, et titiones ejus per Normannicos limites hac illacque spargunt. Quos nominatim litteris exprimerem, si inexorabilia eorum odia declinare nollem. Attamen non alii exstiterunt, vobis in aure loquor circumstantibus, quam hi qui fideliores se profitentur et quos nunc majoribus Dux cumulavit honoribus.”
599. Roman de Rou, 9907 et seqq. The great offence was calling the Normans “bigoz è draschiers.” The first name has given cause to much controversy; the second is said to mean drinkers of ale, a wholesome witness of their Teutonic descent. But cf. Æsch. Suppl. 930;
600. See vol. i. p. 189. The whole feeling between France and Normandy is best summed up in the passage from Wace referred to in p. 201, especially the lines,
The feeling is thus represented as mainly a popular one.
602. Art de verifier les Dates, ii. 670.
603. Will. Gem. vii. 5. “Duxit se placabilem ei nullo modo fore, quamdiu Tegulense castrum videret in pristino statu persistere.”
604. Will. Gem. vii. 5. “Cujus fraudes animi ob salutem pueri vitare cupientes, in fide stantes Normanni decreverunt fieri quod egisse postmodum pœnituit.”
605. On the family of Crispin or of Tillières see Stapleton, i. cxx.; ii. xliv. There is a special treatise, “De nobili Crispinorum Genere,” which will be found in Giles’ Lanfranc, i. 340. This Gilbert must not be confounded with Count Gilbert of Brionne, who seems also to be called Crispin. See Prevost, note on Roman de Rou, ii. 5.
606. Will. Gem. vii. 5. “Mox ut molestissimum agnovit decretum.”
607. Ib. “Exercitibus tam Francorum quam Normannorum contractis.”
608. Ib. “Gislebertus tandem, precibus Ducis victus, mœrens castrum reddidit.”
609. Ib. “Quod [castrum] sub oculis omnium sub maximo dolore cordis confestim igne concremari perspexit.” The speedy restoration of the fortress, of which we shall hear directly, shows what is really meant by this burning. That the castle was wholly of wood is inconceivable. But all the wooden appendages, all the roofs, floors, and fittings of the main building, were burned. The principal tower would thus remain dismantled, blackened, perhaps a little damaged in its masonry, but quite fit to be made available again in a short time.
610. Will. Gem. vii. 5. “Sacramenta quæ Duci juraverat ne à quoquam suo in quatuor annis reficerentur, irrita fecit.”
611. Ib.
612. Ib. vii. 6. “Turstenus cognomento Goz, Ansfridi Dani filius, qui tunc præses Oximensis erat.”
613. See vol. i. pp. 211, 216, 243, 262. Without trusting all Dudo’s details, there can be no doubt as to the general fact of these later settlements.
614. Will. Gem. vii. 6. “Zelo succensus infidelitatis, regales milites stippendiis conduxit, quos complices ad muniendum Falesiæ castellum, ne inde Duci serviret, sibi adscivit.” The presence of the French soldiers is thus plain enough, and their presence seems to imply the complicity of the French King; but there seems to be no sufficient authority for bringing in a second devastating invasion of the County of Hiesmes by Henry in person, as we find described in the Roman de Rou, 8526, where I do not understand Prevost’s note.
615. Will. Gem. vii. 6. He founded St. Gabriel’s Priory near Bayeux, the small remains of which are among the finest Romanesque work in Normandy. See De Caumont, Statistique Monumental du Calvados, i. 306.
616. See Will. Gem. viii. 38. Ord. Vit. 488 B, 522 A, B.
617. Will. Malms. iii. 240. “At ille, ubi primùm per ætatem potuit, militiæ insignia à Rege Francorum accipiens, provinciales in spem quietis erexit.”
618. See above, p. 172. William of Poitiers (Giles, Scriptt. Will. Conq. 80; Duchèsne, 179 B) gives him, as might be expected, a splendid panegyric. Among other virtues we read, “Summo studio cœpit ecclesiis Dei patrocinari, caussas impotentium tutari, jura imponere quæ non gravarent, judicia facere quæ nequaquam ab æquitate vel temperantiâ deviarent. Imprimis prohibere cædes, incendia, rapinas. Rebus enim illicitis nimia ubique, ut suprà docuimus, licentia fuit.” See also the later panegyrics on his administration of justice, p. 88, and on his piety in 113, to which I shall have again to refer.
621. Robert was succeeded at Evreux by his son Richard and his grandson William. On the death of William his inheritance passed to his sister Agnes, wife of Simon the Second of Montfort, ancestor of the great Simon. See the pedigrees in Duchèsne, pp. 1084, 1092, and Pauli, 19.
622. Will. Gem. vii. 7. Ord. Vit. 566 D. The verses on him in the series of Archbishops are,
See, for a fearful description of his misdeeds, Will. Pict. 116 ed. Giles. Amongst other things, he never received the pallium. The list of Archbishops in Mabillon (Vet. An. ii. 439) says, “Non electione meriti, sed carnali parentum [parents in the French sense] amore et adulatorum suffragio in pueritiâ sedem adeptus est pontificalem; omni destitutus tutelâ, potiùs adquievit carni et sanguini quam divinis mandatis.”
623. Will. Pict. 118 Giles. Will. Gem. vii. 3, 17. Ord. Vit. 660 B. See Appendix N.
625. A son of Herlwin and Herleva could not be born before 1036; Odo therefore, at the time of his appointment, could not have been above twelve years old.
626. Will. Gem. vii. 17. Ord. Vit. 664 D.
627. See especially the portrait of him in Orderic, u. s. William of Poitiers (118 Giles) ventures to say, “Odonem ab annis puerilibus optimorum numero consona præconia optimorum inseruerunt. Fertur hic in longinquas regiones celeberrima fama; sed ipsius liberalissimi atque humillimi multa et industria et bonitas amplius meretur.”
628. Ord. Vit. 646 D. Here Odo is “præsumptor episcopus, cui principatus Albionis et Neustriæ non sufficiebat.”
629. Ib. 665 A. Up to this time scriptural names seem to have been hardly more usual in Normandy than in England. The sons of Archbishop Robert bore names of the usual Teutonic cast, but his successor Malger called his son Michael. Ib. 566 D.
630. On these works of Odo see Will. Gem. vii. 17. Ord. Vit. 665 A. Orderic’s words might seem to assert a more complete rebuilding of the cathedral than those of William. Orderic says, “Ecclesiam sanctæ Dei genitricis Mariæ à fundamentis cœpit, eleganter consummavit.” William has only, “Pontificalem ecclesiam in honorem sanctæ Dei genitricis Mariæ novam auxit.” Perhaps this means that he rebuilt it on a larger scale. It was consecrated, like many other Norman Churches, in 1077. Ord. Vit. 548 D. Compare the many dedications of English churches in 1258. See Matt. Paris, 449, 481, Wats.
631. Ord. Vit. 765 C.
632. Ord. Vit. 460 A. “Quisque potentum se derisione dignum judicabat, si clericos aut monachos in suâ possessione ad Dei militiam rebus necessariis non sustentabat.” So also Will. Gem. vii. 22. “Unusquisque optimatum certabat in prædio suo ecclesias fabricare, et monachos qui pro se Deum rogarent rebus suis locupletare.” Each adds a long list of the foundations of the time. The expressions “clerici” and “ecclesias fabricare” would seem to apply to parish churches also. But few parish churches of so early a date exist in Normandy. The great mass seem to have been built or rebuilt in the next century.
633. This seems recognized by William of Jumièges (vii. 22). Roger of Montgomery founded monasteries, “indignans videri in aliquo inferior suis comparibus.”
634. Ord. Vit. 547 C. “Ego de extremis Merciorum finibus decennis Angligena huc advectus, barbarusque et ignotus advena callentibus indigenis admixtus, inspirante Deo Normannorum gesta et eventus Normannis promere scripto sum conatus.” So 548 A; “De Angliâ in Normanniam tenellus exsul, ut æterno Regi militarem, destinatus sum.” See also pp. 579–581. His father Odelerius was a priest of Orleans. Of the importance of these passages I shall have to speak again.
635. See Orderic 492 B, and Appendix D.
636. Will. Gem. vi. 9. “A Danis igitur qui Normanniam primi obtinuere pater ejus originem duxit.” So Milo Crispin, Vitæ Abb. Becc. (Giles, Lanfranc, i. 261), who copies William. Both give the name Ansgotus. I know not why pedigree-makers (see one quoted by Taylor, Wace 209, and another in Sir A. Malet’s Wace 269) identify this Ansgod with “Crispinus of Bec.”
639. Will. Gem. vi. 9. “Mater proximam Ducum Morinorum, quos moderni Flandros cognominant, consanguinitatem attigit.” Milo is satisfied with the description of “Ducum Flandriæ,” without the flourish about the Morini. Herlwin may thus have been, in the female line, a descendant of our Ælfred.
640. Milo, ap. Giles, i. 262. Orderic, 460 B. Herlwin, hard pressed in the battle, vows that, if he survives, he will serve God only—“nulli ulteriùs nisi soli Deo militaret.”
641. Milo, i. 264. The Count was seeking the destruction of some neighbour; “de cujusdam compatriotæ sui damno agens, quod in illius vergebat perniciem.”
642. Ib. “Continuò abripiuntur omnia sua, nec curat, vastantur quoque pauperes sui, unde non parvâ sollicitatur curâ.”
643. See the description in Orderic, 574 D et seqq. His words are remarkable. After describing the marriage or concubinage of the clergy and even of the Bishops, he goes on (575 A); “Hujusmodi mos inolevit tempore neophytorum, qui cum Rollone baptizati sunt, et desolatam regionem non litteris sed armis instructi violenter invaserunt. Deinde presbyteri de stirpe Dacorum litteris tenuiter edocti parochias tenebant, et arma ferentes laicalem feudum militari famulatu defendebant.”
644. Milo, i. 266. “Quidam monachus monachum pugno repercussum avertit, ac impulsum supinis dentibus demisit ad solum; adhuc enim, ut dictum est, omnes omnium per Normanniam mores barbari erant.”
645. Milo, i. 266, 267.
646. Will. Gem. vi. 9. Ord. Vit. 549 A. Herbert was Bishop of Lisieux from 1026 to 1050. He began to rebuild the Cathedral, which was finished by his successor Hugh. No part of their work remains.
647. Milo, i. 264, 265. The release of the lands seems implied in the foundation of the monastery.
648. Will. Gem. u. s. Milo, i. 265.
649. Will. Gem. u. s. “Ipse non solum operi præsidebat, sed opus ipsum efficiebat, terram fodiens, fossam efferens, lapides, sabulum, calcemque humeris comportans, ac ea in parietem ipsemet componens.” The church of Burneville then, like Cnut’s church on Assandun (see vol. i. p. 472), was clearly a minster of stone and lime. For a like example of humility, take Saint Hugh of Lincoln, who worked at the building of his own cathedral church. (Metrical Life of St. Hugh, ed. Dimock, p. 32.) Compare the penance imposed on Duke Godfrey for his sacrilege at Verdun; see above, p. 98. In somewhat the same spirit Edward the First worked personally in making the ditch at Berwick in 1296. Rishanger, ed. Riley, p. 375.
650. Will. Gem. u. s. “Ab eodem præsule sacerdos ordinatus atque Abbas constitutus est.” Cf. Milo, i. 267. The last writer seems to make Herlwin delay his monastic profession till the consecration of the church, but it seems from William of Jumièges and Orderic (549 A) that an interval of three years passed between his first profession and his ordination and benediction as Abbot. Milo himself, though in a confused way, recognizes an interval of three years.
651. Will. Gem. vi. 9. Milo, i. 265.
652. Milo, i. 268. “Simili se inibi propter Deum servituti nobilis mater ejus addixit, et concessis Deo prædiis, quæ habebat, ancillæ fungebatur officio.”
653. Chron. Becc. ap. Giles, i. 194. “Quia campestris et inaquosus est locus.” On the necessity of wood and water for monks, we have the witness of Orderic (461 A) in the case of his own house. “Locus iste,” says William the son of Geroy, “ubi cœpistis ædificare, habitationi monachorum aptus non est, quia ibi aqua deest et nemus longè est. Certum est quod absque his duobus elementis monachi esse non possunt.” The description of Bec in William of Jumièges enlarges on the advantages of the spot. It is “omni opportunitate humano usui commodus. Propter densitatem ac rivi recreationem, ferarum illic multus erat accursus.”
654. Will. Gem. u. s. “Locus, qui à rivo illic mananti Beccus appellatur.” So Chron. Becc. ap. Giles, i. 194; “Locus qui dicitur Beccus, et ita vocitatus à rivulo ibi decurrente, qui adhuc hodiernis temporibus decurrit juxta muros prati.”
655. It must be remembered that Herlwin’s first church at Bec was on a different site from the existing remains, which represent his second building.
656. Milo, i. 268. “Comes Gilbertus nil usquam eo saltu pretiosius possidebat.” The only human habitations in the valley were three mills, in two of which Herlwin had the right of a third part. Partly by gift, partly by purchase, he obtained possession of the whole valley. For his own gifts at Burneville and elsewhere, see his Charter in Neustria Pia, 437.
657. Will. Gem. vi. 9. Milo, i. 269. “Consecratâ, paucis exstructâ annis, non parvâ ecclesiâ, columnis ex ligneis claustrum construxit.” The church then was of stone.
658. Milo, i. 270. “Abbas peritus erat in dirimendis caussarum sæcularium controversiis, prudens in iis quæ ad exteriora pertinent, ... legum patriæ scientissimus.”
659. Will. Gem. vi. 9. Ord. Vit. 549 A.
660. Will. Gem. u. s. “Gentium transmarinarum summus Pontifex.” Milo, i. 275. “Gentium transmarinarum Apostolicus.” Ib. 272. “Summus antistes et in ecclesiis transmarinis vices apostolicas gerens.” See vol. i. pp. 146, 627.
661. Will. Malms. iii. 246. “Omnium gentium benignissimi advenas æquali secum honore colunt.”
662. Chron. Fontanellense (Saint Wandrille), ap. D’Achery, iii. 286.
663. Orderic’s description of him (519 A) begins, “Hic ex nobili parentelâ ortus, Papiæ urbis Italiæ civibus, ab annis infantiæ in scholis liberalium artium studuit, et secularium legum peritiam ad patriæ suæ morem intentione laicâ fervidus edidicit.” Gervase (X Scriptt. 1652), from whom we get the names of his parents, says, “natus in urbe Papiensi civibus egregiis et honestâ conditione; pater ipsius Hanbaldus, mater Roza vocabatur.” William of Malmesbury (Gest. Pont. 116 b) says only, “non adeò abjectâ et obscurâ progenie oriundus erat.” Milo’s description (i. 281) points to a sort of nobility of the robe; “Parentes illius, ejusdem urbis cives, magni et honorabiles habebantur inter suos concives. Nam, ut fertur, pater ejus de ordine illorum qui jura et leges civitatis asservabant fuit.” Dr. Hook (Archbishops, ii. 74) refers to his letter to Queen Margaret of Scotland (Giles, i. 59), in which he calls himself “hominem extraneum, vilem, ignobilem.” A sort of civic nobility seems to reconcile the different descriptions.
664. I suppose that a knowledge of Greek is implied in the description given by William of Jumièges (vi. 9); “Ortus Italiâ quidam vir erat, quem Latinitas, in antiquum ab eo restituta scientiæ statum, tota supremum debito cum amore et honore agnoscit, nomine Lanfrancus. Ipsa quoque in liberalibus studiis gentium magistra Græcia discipulos illius libenter audiebat, et admirabatur.” The odd expression of “Latinitas” occurs also in the passage in the Saint Wandrille Chronicle just referred to. “Potestas secundi Richardi, velut amore diluculi, in toto Latinitatis orbe serena refulsit.” I suppose it takes in all nations of Romance speech.
665. See the quotation from Orderic just above, and Dr. Hook’s (ii. 75) discussion as to his exact position.
666. Ord. Vit. 519 A. “Adolescentulus orator veteranos adversantes in actionibus caussarum frequenter præcipitavit, torrente facundiâ appositè dicendo senes superavit. In ipsâ ætate sententias promere statuit quas gratanter juris periti aut judices aut prætores civitatis acceptabant.”